Written Answers Wednesday 9 January 2008

Scottish Executive

Access for Disabled People

Bill Kidd (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average costs of fully wheelchair-accessible homes are compared with homes without such access.

Stewart Maxwell: The information requested is not held centrally.

Dentistry

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dental students will be enrolled at the new Aberdeen dental school in 2008.

Shona Robison: It is expected that up to 15 dental students will be enrolled at the new Aberdeen dental school in 2008, rising to 20 students per year in subsequent years.

Dentistry

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what dental services will be available for patients from the north east and highlands and islands at the new Aberdeen dental school in 2008.

Shona Robison: The Aberdeen dental school will be established primarily to train dental students, although service provision is expected to be affected positively when the students graduate and hopefully remain in the area.

  As part of the teaching programme, it is expected that the dental students will work in outreach training centres in Grampian and the North of Scotland.

Finance

Jamie Hepburn (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what alternatives are available to local authorities, NHS boards and government agencies that do not wish to use PFI/PPP contracts for infrastructure development.

John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S3O-1086 on 1 November 2007. All answers to oral parliamentary questions issued as written answers are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Health

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing’s Ministerial Statement on Health Strategy on 12 December 2007, whether it will include Lanark in the pilot scheme for a nurse-led minor injuries clinic.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Better Health, Better Care Action Plan, published on 12 December 2007, highlighted the Scottish Government’s commitment to improve availability of primary care services. As part of the package of planned improvements in this area, we will establish five pilot projects in our biggest health board areas (Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside) to provide walk-in access to a range of primary care services through community pharmacies.

  The focus in the first instance is to locate pilot sites in or around major commuter points and shopping areas within these health board areas. Lanark is not included as part of the pilot project but the pilot projects will inform future roll-out of such an approach. The pilot sites will be subject to on-going evaluation to determine how best community pharmacy walk-in service models could be applied in other areas; the sustainability of community pharmacy walk-in services, and any future development of walk-in services.

  It is important to emphasise that the pilot sites will offer access to a mix of walk-in primary care services and the services provided will vary from site to site based on locally identified needs. The mix of services could include, for example, nurse-led minor injury clinics, sexual health screening and treatment, simple diagnostic tests and some adult immunisations.

Mental Health

Margaret Curran (Glasgow Baillieston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guarantee it can give to ensure that expenditure on mental health services will remain at current levels.

Shona Robison: Spend on mental health services will be drawn from the record funds allocated to NHS boards and local government overall. Further details can be found in the Scottish Budget Report and related concordat with local government (Bib. numbers 44076 and 44077 respectively).

  It is the responsibility of these agencies to work in partnership and to allocate funds from the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs, priorities and agreed targets. These priorities include the Scottish Government’s focus on progress with the 14 published commitments and four HEAT targets, the latter covering dementia care, and reductions in suicides; hospital readmissions, and levels of antidepressant prescribing.

NHS Services

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) assessment and (b) peer review has been undertaken of the reliability and validity of the (i) Improving Practice and (ii) General Practice Assessment patient review questionnaires used in the UK Quality and Outcomes Framework.

Nicola Sturgeon: As part of the process of negotiating the new GP contract, an independent group of academics made an assessment of the surveys available. The group recommended the Improving Practice and General Practice Accreditation questionnaires for inclusion within the Quality Outcomes Framework of the new contract. This recommendation was accepted by the negotiating parties.

  For both surveys there is published peer-reviewed research. The Improving Practice questionnaire is based on a similar questionnaire used within GP accreditation schemes in other countries and is structured around commonly agreed standards as set out by the Royal Colleges of General Practice. The General Practice Accreditation questionnaire was developed by the University of Manchester in collaboration with the Health Institute of Boston, and is closely related to a questionnaire that has been extensively validated in the USA.

NHS Services

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are used to test the level of satisfaction of patients with out-of-hours services in the NHS.

Nicola Sturgeon: The NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) Standards for The Provision of Safe and Effective Primary Medical Services Out-of-Hours (August 2004) require the service provider to take action to identify patient views and satisfaction levels. In addition, the standards require comments, complaints and compliments to be recorded, regularly reviewed and action to be taken.

  All services adhere to and are fully integrated into the NHS board complaints system.

  When reviewing services, NHS QIS found that most services could demonstrate that action was taken where appropriate, lessons learned disseminated to staff, and that complaints were monitored.

Non-Domestic Rates

Bob Doris (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many small businesses in the Glasgow Rutherglen parliamentary constituency will benefit from the proposed cut in business rates.

John Swinney: Information on small businesses in the form requested is not held centrally. However, information on the number and rateable value of non-domestic properties which may be eligible for relief under the Small Business Bonus scheme is available for each of the local authority areas concerned on the Scottish Assessors Portal ( www.saa.gov.uk ). This information is shown as follows:

  

 Number of Properties by Local Authority Area
 Rateable Value of Property


 Up to £8,000
£8,001-£10,000
£10,001-£15,000
 Total up to £15,000


 Glasgow City
 11,943
 1,628
 2,420
 15,991


 South Lanarkshire
 4,956
 626
 905
 6,487



  Notes:

  (i) The rateable value ranges shown in the table correspond to those on page 12 of the Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007.

  (ii) The table shows the number of non-domestic properties, except zero-rated properties, with rateable values of up to £15,000 in each of the local authority areas in which the Rutherglen parliamentary constituency is situated.

  (iii) The number of eligible businesses will be lower than the number of non-domestic properties in each area, because some businesses have more than one property. This may affect eligibility for relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which will depend on:

  the combined rateable value of all properties in Scotland for which the business is liable to pay rates;

  whether the property is eligible for one of the existing rates relief schemes, and

  the level of other public sector assistance received by the business.

Referendum (Scotland) Bill

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the comments made by the Deputy First Minister on 6 December 2007 (Official Report, c. 4140), whether the draft Referendum (Scotland) Bill is competent and legal.

Nicola Sturgeon: Choosing Scotland’s Future says (at paragraph 5.9 and paragraph 3 on page 35) that "as far as legislative competence is concerned, a referendum could be held under the authority of an Act of the Scottish Parliament, depending on the precise proposition in the referendum Bill, or any adjustments made to the competence of the Parliament before the Bill is introduced".

Referendum (Scotland) Bill

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the comments made by the Deputy First Minister on 6 December 2007 ( Official Report , c. 4140), whether, in the interests of openness and transparency, it will publish the legal advice on the draft Referendum (Scotland) Bill.

Nicola Sturgeon: It is the practice of successive governments, reflected in the Scottish Ministerial Code and the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, that the fact and content of legal advice is not revealed.